Ms. DiSessa's Blog

Week 1 - The Impact of Covid-19

Instructional Technology

July 19, 2022

How has COVID-19 impacted the way we look at education? What changes have come due to the pandemic to our field that you feel will be permanent? How about temporary? Provide rationale as to why you feel that way.

The Covid-19 pandemic brought about dramatic changes to every aspect of our human existence in every industry. These changes were either temporary during the “shut-down” or have remained as part of the “new normal” in which we are currently living. One might assert that the most critical industry to experience such dramatic shifts is our educational system and the ‘traditional’ methods of dispensing information. Educators, students, and parents continue to endure the positive and negative influences that Covid-19 has forced upon our schools.

Just from a logistical standpoint, the pandemic restructured any semblance of a predictable and “settled” school routine. When students, teachers, and parents were thrust into quarantine, distant or remote learning was instituted. New technologies needed to be introduced, quickly learned and applied. Virtual platforms for all grade-levels, subject areas and most importantly, diverse learners, were being explored and integrated with both success and failure. Teachers, students and parents needed to educate themselves and become familiar with platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom, and Flip Grid. While this took hours of excruciating planning, executing and posting, in some educational sense, it actually paid off. New, effective and cutting-edge vehicles for dispensing were explored that otherside wouldn’t have been utilized. Technology got the extra push it needed to be implemented to its fullest potential. It is my almost certain belief that these platforms and technologies will be permanent fixtures in schools and education going forward. Could Covid be the catalyst our schools were waiting for?

Conversely, while new technologies augmented academic learning, there has been a significant decline in our students’ social and emotional learning. Schools represent a safe, reliable environment that provide students with social and even sometimes basic needs; i.e. meals, hygiene lessons, interaction with peers, stability and love. Therefore when schools shut down, students were removed from more than just their classrooms. They were separated from friends, social activities, and compassionate adults who helped them build self-esteem, navigate childhood, and learn valuable coping skills. There were students who would abruptly ‘leave’ virtual classes or sometimes not attend at all. Students engrossed themselves into their gaming devices and social media, thus promoting difficulty in distinguishing what is real. Even though schools reopened the following year on a shortened or ‘hybrid’ schedule, masks and desk shields, as well as the absence of ‘hands-on’ learning experiences, continued to hinder students’ learning process. As our educators, students, and parents continue to play ‘emotional catch-up’ going forward, it is my belief that the social disconnect and emotional ineptness amongst students that resulted from the pandemic and ‘social distancing’ are temporary changes.